New Haven parents flocking to help school get supplies

NEW HAVEN -- Three Edgewood mothers are on a mission to flock as many neighbors as they can in 100 days. If those who are flocked happen to be parents of their kids' classmates, all the better.

Before people's minds run wild, the flocking is a fundraiser by parents at Edgewood School to donate interactive white boards for teachers at the school that serves children from kindergarten through eighth grade.

"It took off like wildfire. The first week people heard about it and were contacting Jenny about how they could get the flocks on their lawns," said Deirdre Fox, a mother of two children, Jacob and Sam, at Edgewood School.

Here's the premise: Skinny-legged flamingos, plastic and pink, surreptitiously planted in front yards. If you get flocked, you can donate money, if you choose, and get to flock a friend.

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Think half MTV-inspired "Punk'd" and half college fraternity prank. But all for a good cause.

"I've been living, eating and breathing flamingos since May 19," said Jenny Simpson, a parent of two Edgewood students and a fundraiser for the parent team, the Edgewood version of the PTA.

In full disclosure, this reporter was flocked earlier this month.

The idea came in the early spring. The parent team hoped to build upon a successful pasta dinner and jazz fundraiser the group held. Simpson turned to the Internet for encore ideas and came across the flamingos, which, surprise, is a popular fundraiser in Florida.

Like any idea, it was discussed by Simpson, Fox and Erica Holahan and a phenomenon was born.

The flamingos were ordered. Fox was key because she had a hot glue gun to affix the Edgewood centennial-celebration logos to each pink bird. And so the flocking began.

Simpson said she never expected the flocks to get so popular. She expected the fundraising prank to last maybe a few weeks as the trio moved them every night from house to house. But demand was so great, that ultimately about 15 parents took shifts moving the flocks every night.

They decided to have the pranking last 100 days and try to raise $ 10,000 to donate to the school in honor of its 100th anniversary. They're about halfway there and brainstorming how to reach the goal.

"We have such an incredible community at Edgewood with parents who are so involved and want to do whatever they can," said BonniePachesa, the former Edgewood principal who retired at the end of last school year after 37 years with the district.

"She (Simpson) came to me with the idea and I immediately loved it."

The district is buying 30 new laptops for the school's technology lab, but the school still doesn't have any Smart Boards, she said.

Pachesa had one playful grievance. She wondered why it took so long for the birds to show up in her front yard. "When it first launched people were clamoring to have the birds. They wanted to know how they could get the birds. How they got them on their lawn. They wanted to flock a friend. It was great," Simpson said.